Process

In 1961, a young group of Brits first published their revolutionary ideas for architecture in their self-titled publication Archigram. Bored by the what they felt was the dull, pretentious world of architecture at the time, they made drawings of futuristic cities and devices that pushed the ideas of architecture's function and role in society.

In the fall of 2008, I made an informational poster about the group. The challenge, an assignment from Michael Worthington at CalArts, was to express identical copy using only type on a double-sided black and white poster (no gray values) with one side of the poster denotative and the other connotative. In addition, only one typeface could be used per side. The aim of the denotative side was to be informative and visually interesting with subtle connotative references to the group. The connotative side was to be as expressive as possible of the group's ideas.

For the front of my poster, the informative, denotative side, I took advantage of Eric Olson's Stratum typeface. It's subtle sci-fi references and variety of weights allowed me to create an interesting composition of different weights and controlled hierarchy.

The back side of my poster, the expressive, connotative side, I used type to express some of Archigram's visionary ideas. Many of their planned cities and objects were able to be infinitely attached to, expanded and unfolded; which I expressed by breaking apart type and creating extreme perspectives where words and letters unfold.